Benefits of Pilates: 6 Reasons Every Woman Should Try Pilates

To all women who think they can’t perform Pilates, I want to say that you are wrong. In fact, women of all ages can perform Pilates exercises. Whether you are 30 years old or 50 years old, you can do Pilates in the gym or at the home. However, you need to learn several precautions before performing Pilates. With Pilates, you can avail various health benefits like strengthening of the hips, abdominal muscles and enhanced flexibility. Here are 6 specific reasons why every woman should try Pilates:

Alleviates Back Pain

By strengthening your core muscles, you can surely minimize your back pain. If the lumbar-pelvic region of the core muscle become flexible and strong you can prevent stress in that area and allow easy movements. And Pilates are among the best exercises for toning the core muscles. So, by performing Pilates regularly, you can reduce the pain present in your back and spine. (1) According to researchers, people with lower back pain, who performed Pilates for only 4 weeks, experience more relief than those who consult doctors, physicians or other specialists.

Enhance Coordination

Like yoga, Pilates also makes encourages you to focus on your mind, your body and your breath. It allows you to feel how these three things work together. This method of exercise will make you forget about your work, your tensions, and other activities for duration of your exercise. Two things that will remain in your mind would be the moves and the breadth. This would definitely help improve your concentration.

Lose Fat

By performing Pilates for one hour, a beginner with a weight of 150 pounds can burn 251 calories, and an intermediate can burn around 350 calories, while an advanced trainer can burn 432 calories (2). In order to perform Pilates effectively, you need to use proper equipment such as an exercise mat, Pilates rings/balls and weights The Crisscross, heel ups and plank jacks are among the best Pilates moves for burning body fat. These exercise works the mid-section and core.

Improve Mental power

Pilates is great for avoiding cognitive dysfunctions and brain-degenerative diseases. With this exercise, you can improve your memory performance, neural network activity, and other cognitive functions. Because of all these benefits, Pilates is also called “the thinking man’s exercise”. (3) In research, it was concluded that by performing pilates training continuously for 10 weeks, women could improve their brain’s alpha peak power.

5. Improve Posture

Basically, it is the upper back pain that leads to poor posture. Pilates is great for preventing upper back pain. If you perform Pilates by following the right technique, you can balance your spinal alignment. In Pilates, you need to coordinate your movement with your breath, this leads to the expansion of the diaphragm. And if you expand your diaphragm again and again, you can surely straighten your spine and better your body posture. When you perform Pilates exercises, your shoulders get stretched, and you get better posture.

6. Helps in Improving Sports Performance

By toning several body muscles, you can improve running, cycling and also sports performance. (3) According to professionals, by strengthening your core, you can run at a very fast rate. If you are looking for the best Pilates move for improving your core, you should perform rolling like a ball. In this exercise, you need to accurately and effectively engage your core muscles. By practicing this exercise at least five times, you can find your balance and thereby strengthen your core muscles. Along with Pilates, you can also perform other high impact exercises like squats, push-ups and pull-ups to enhance your athletic performance.

Conclusion

If you want to acquire various health benefits, you need to perform Pilates. With Pilates, you can strengthen your core muscles and reduce back pain and improve posture. If you perform this exercise for 1 hour, you can burn about at least 250 calories. Pilates is ideal for improving physical and mental strength. This exercise helps in building the abdominals, hamstrings, calves, legs and so providing all body cardiovascular workouts.

Author Bio: Andrew is the founder and CEO at AimWorkout. As a passionate fitness professional and triathlete, there is literally no adventure he won’t embark on. From mountain biking, deep sea diving, rock climbing and cycling to boxing and mixed martial arts, Andrew has a penchant for the wild and extreme.

Kristin McGee is a celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor in New York City. She is the star of over 100 videos, a contributing editor at Health Magazine and a spokeswoman for many brands and causes she believes in. Kristin also appears frequently on television. A mother of a toddler and twins on the way, she sure keeps herself busy!

3 thoughts on “Benefits of Pilates: 6 Reasons Every Woman Should Try Pilates”

Wow, I had no idea that Pilates can help you improve your posture; that’s really awesome! Last week, my doctor told me that my poor posture from sitting at a desk all day has started to cause some damage. It sounds like Pilates could be exactly what I need to help me improve it and keep my back healthy. In fact, I think I’ll start looking around for a studio in my area.

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